The War on Drugs…..55 years of lies and morbidity

Wars always have casualties..They are the price of the victory if you can lose your feelings to comment. What happens when you have no victories only casualties?

1956 was back in the day as the saying goes. Some one chose that year to attack the illegal drug trade with a declaration of War.The enemy was the user/addict and his suppliers .  All connectors to the same people or their network were also declared “enemies” in this War. The victory would be in the elimination of illegal drugs and the punishment of the users and the suppliers.

This elimination has not happened, although the punishment has been so cruel and damning for the convicted that they become pariahs forever. In fact, the opposite has been the rule or reality. Users of illegal drugs have multiplied. The number of vendors or suppliers are beyond counting. The deaths and destruction of users, law enforcement officers and families of all are also more than can be counted. There is much to be acknowledged in this dilemma.

First is the beginning. It was not 1956 actually. The attempts to prohibit and criminalize the use of illegal drugs came in the thirties. It has become another exercise in futility that followed the failure to prohibit alcohol. The ATF, FBI, IRS, state and local police could not stop people from drinking alcohol, booze, moonshine. They could not  prevent major influences and prominent families from transporting the best that could be made or obtained. The tools and efforts of the government could not keep alcohol from their appointed designations or people who wanted to consume it.                                                              It has been offered that those lettered bureaus had no reason to exist after failing or being ineffective so they chose to attack marijuana use, cocaine use and branched out as the illegal  drugs  differed and grew. New laws were created as older laws were intensified  by compounding the consequences.

The legal drug companies supported this effort in every way they could, understandably.

These “companies” are predators in their own special way. They employ and support lobbys to influence our elected leaders. The leaders are woefully unable to think for themselves except to ensure their reelection by any means .

All too often their “means’ supports insane punishment for this health problem of addiction. It is further  enhanced by the need of exaggeration to implement fear in the general public.This act  which is carried out in police procedures, correction enforcement and incarceration perpetuates the status quo. It is a  continuing series that goes further away from solving any problems .

It creates a disrespect for police and authority due to coercion, bribes and futility at gaining any solution. It creates an  exploding population of prisoners and ex-convicts whose lives are destroyed.Their families are innocent victims forever. The sickening stories of these lives torn and shredded by these continuing lies and distortions to keep the “business of drug control” are a travesty of justice and an atrocity to all mankind.

The platform is fueled often by right-wing dementia and conservative racism.There is, perhaps, an endless array of supporting factors  but to say a victory in the war on drugs will happen is a sad fallacy..

There can be only one victory in this war and that will come through sane and  compassionate legalization, like in Las Vegas Gambling or Prostitution. I deliberately picked Las Vegas because of the extreme application of both activities. It is working and has for a long time. Taxes help in many ways due to the popularity of the sources.  In Amsterdam a prototype exists daily. Monitoring “users” or addicts is an easy task with results that are measurable.

The “crimes” of the cartels and the profits of legal drug companies will decline..Some people may never go to prison so the police can concentrate on the sick serial killers and a multitude of other sociopathic profiles. Liquor and cigarette companies might take a hit too..

I think the on going charade is much worse and with no end in sight it  is senseless to continue in this morbid act of depravity. We can still be humans with compassion and good will to each other..It is not too late..